End Notes
The Foreign Doctor
By Hector Michelena, M.D.
On the dusk of a brief return,
Many years from exile,
After conquering the hearts of other patients,
The respect of other teachers,
In a foreign land, with a foreign language,
The doctor is back.
Looking in dirty streets for a time lost,
For his poor patients,
The ones that taught the doctor with their sickness, without pay,
Innocent to his inexperience,
Abandoned by law and government,
Their fate not recorded,
For it was unimportant.
But it has been the same sun and stars that have appeared all these years,
Here and there,
The same sacrifice to excel at all cost,
To heal with compassion,
The same battle against suffering,
Here and there,
Does it matter where?
Still, the doctor is back,
Now foreign in all lands,
For he does not really belong there,
And somewhere along the way,
Ceased to belong here.
Hector Michelena is a staff cardiologist at Mayo Clinic.